We're now a week into our travels and the only downsides so far are: Not enough wifi signal to Skype for last 4 days Itchy mosquito bites Wet clothes that won't dry

I'm also tying to keep tabs on our money as private rooms at the hostels are expensive! It's hard to keep a track and we've definitely gone over budget so far but I think we can pull it back by eating in more and taking less bus journeys.

After a lazy morning we checked out and headed to the bus station for our first coach journey in Brazil. It all seemed very well organised, our backpacks were stickered, you had a copy and so did the bus driver - so no one could claim your bag at the other side - and we got on the bus and found our seats, which were numbered on the ticket, with no trouble at all. The seats were spacious, with reclining backs and a foot rest than joined the floor to the chair.

However, as we were waiting for the other passengers to board, three australian girls were trying to tell a brazilian family that they were sat in their seats. Trouble was, they both bad tickets for the same bus, same time, same day but also with the same seat numbers! the bus company had made a mistake, the coach was full and the girls had a flight to India from Sao Paulo that night, not leaving them much time as it was. So top tip would be - always get to the bus station as early as possible, as its much easier to sit in someone else's seat than try and get someone out of yours! The company, although slow to rectify the problem, organised a taxi to take the girls on the 7 hour journey.

The journey was pretty uneventful, I slept for a while and then we watched Stepbrothers! The view from the window was slightly drier than when we came to Paraty:

At São Paulo bus station we needed to book the next bus tickets for Curitiba in two days time and after discovering the ticket officer spoke no English I managed to book the tickets in Portuguese! Admittedly, I'm starting from a very low base (zero) but I'm definitely improving!!

We're also getting better at finding places ourselves, we got from the bus terminal, to the metro, down the line to the right stop and walked the rest of the way. The hostel, Uvaia Hostel, was nice with a good kitchen, and although the bathroom wasn't private we ended up having it to ourselves anyway through lack of other guests downstairs. There was also a cool outside area, undercover, to relax in with bean bags and tables. It was late when we arrived so after a quick dinner we went to Bedfordshire.

Comments

Hey Stacey and Andrew, it looks like u both r having a fantabulous time, im loving reading about ur travels and thinking im very jelous :-) but very happy for u both. keep the blogs coming they r great xxxxxx

by Diana

Hi Diana! Ah thank you We're trying to keep up with it, so hopefully lots more to come! Hope you're well xxx